SSS Ranked Shadow Monarch: Summoning Infinite Shadows-Chapter 280: Deaths

Three shots rang through the air as Aren finally broke free with the help of the lady. He retreated a few steps back instantly.

’This is turning out to be far harder than I had expected, tch, it’s like the snake gets stronger and faster the more that we attack.’

His mind churned for an answer, he didn’t want to have to summon the giant, because that would be him reaching his total limit here.

Still, it didn’t seem like there was any other way for him to handle the situation.

"Guess I’ll have to take this on with more strength," Aren muttered. He looked at the snake in front of him and took a deep breath to calm himself. The snake was rushing at him to attack again.

"You better start learning your place," Aren yelled and hurled the hammer at the snake. It broke the sound barrier in an instant and slammed into the face of the snake, but at this point it was already pretty much immune to that attack. But Aren wasn’t done, he called back the hammer and at the same time attacked with a wyvern breath. The blast ripped through the air and slammed into the snake.

BOOM!

The attack slammed into the snake as hard as the hammer, pushing it back immediately, and then another hammer followed, and then another blast. Aren was going from hammer to blast rapidly, while in his mind he was speaking to the soul inside the wolf guard.

"I’ll be needing your help."

"I don’t plan to help you."

"I won our duel fair and square, you are my tool to use now, don’t be stubborn."

"Tch, whatever human, fine, I’ll help you win."

With the agreement of the wolf, the guard started glowing red. It pulsed with an immense amount of soul energy. Aren hurled the hammer at the snake one last time, it hit the head hard, managing to knock it back.

"Now take this!" Aren yelled before charging to close the distance. His feet pressed hard against the ground, his eyes glowed red in that moment, and his body moved even faster than he had normally been moving, he was like a rocket through the air.

He closed the gap and then proceeded to attack, leaping into the air. He lashed with his wolf guard, the attack from it was extremely powerful, unlike anything that Aren had seen so far. The claws ripped through the air and slammed into the snake head-on, the power of the attack instantly knocking it back.

BOOM

A massive gash appeared on the head of the snake. The cut was extremely deep, blood gushed out like a fountain. The snake coiled backwards, pain filled its entire body. It coiled backwards, retreating from Aren as fast as it could, the pain that it felt was unlike anything that it had felt so far.

Opportunity.

Aren spotted his chance immediately and he moved to take it, attacking with a swing of his hammer right for the head of the snake.

BOOM! 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

The shock from the attack added to the pain of the gash in its head. The snake turned to retreat fast while using its tail to attack Aren and stop him from following.

Aren had other plans. He held out his hands and instantly shadow tendrils launched out of the ground and into the air, latching onto the snake all around. He poured a huge amount of soul energy into the tendrils to ensure that he kept it down.

"You’re not very far away from me!" Aren yelled. He turned and looked at the lady. "Attack the injury on its head, go all out!" He yelled at her.

She nodded and immediately got ready to attack, only for the snake to suddenly turn and look at her. Its eyes locked onto her and then all of a sudden it burst in her direction.

The sudden charge at her stunned her for a moment, but she managed to collect herself and prepared to shoot. She fired the blast and it slammed into the snake. Yet the snake seemed to shake that off completely, it kept rushing at her.

"Tch, this monster," the man said as he watched her. He believed that somehow he would be able to handle the snake.

Aren, on the other hand, didn’t have the same feeling. He could feel something was very different with the snake now, a feeling that was not there ever since they had started fighting against it, all of a sudden it was now there.

’This, this is bloodlust, its desire to kill has risen, and not to a normal amount,’ Aren said in his mind. His unease rapidly grew, he clutched his fist tight and charged ahead.

’I have to stop it no matter what, this snake is definitely not attacking the same way as before. It wants to take life intentionally now.’

Aren ran as fast as he could, he believed he could reach before the snake did, but he had heavily underestimated what this snake would do. It suddenly sped up, doubling in speed instantly. None of them were ready for that, especially the lady, as the snake opened wide before she could retaliate or say anything.

It bit down with everything that it had, shattering her skull and breaking her into nothing but mush and blood.

Aren and the man looked at this scene with fear and shock in their eyes, the kind of shock that came when you absolutely did not see something coming, the type that shattered reality in an instant.

Aren stopped in his tracks, looking right at the snake in the distance.

The man, on the other hand, was overwhelmed with an instant rage and grief.

"You bastard!" He roared and rushed ahead. He ran as fast as his feet would allow him, the rage in his eyes as intense. His body was trembling even as he ran. He lunged at the snake with a punch, only for the snake to turn its head and instantly snap at the man as well, killing him in a single bite.

Aren stood there and watched as the blood gushed out as well from the death of the man, his heart rate instantly started climbing as he stood there.

He opened his mouth and all that came out was air.

’I failed them, because I was holding back. What the hell was I doing? What the hell was I doing holding back?

I could have handled this, I could have saved them, I had the power. Why did I hold back, why did I hold back, why the hell did I hold back?’

Aren screamed in his mind as he stood there, a kind of rage that was newly formed, it was not the rage formed when you lost someone that was dear to you, it was the type that came because they trusted him, they believed him, they thought that with him they would be able to win for sure.

Yet he allowed them to die, he watched them die and did nothing about it. Aren felt it like a stab in his heart. The hurt took a form that he had never seen before.

He looked up slowly, the snake looked at him, their eyes met and locked.

"I’ll kill you, I’ll fucking kill you," Aren yelled out and immediately charged ahead, and the next moment he summoned Casper and the giant in a small size running beside him.

The battleground had changed instantly, his rage covered everything and this entire place was now his domain to kill and destroy.

The snake attacked as well, but before it could get close, the giant hurled its hammer, it slammed into the snake and knocked it back instantly.

The giant called back the hammer and at the same time Casper charged ahead, it leaped into the air and attacked with a punch.

BOOM

The fist collided with the snake and instantly threw it back, the massive snake rolled through the ground until it came to a stop.

Aren charged in after that, his eyes glowing red.

’How long will I allow myself to get carried away in this game that they play because I’m trying to play it calm. Fuck them, fuck this, fuck everyone and the gods included.

I’m ending this facade right here and right now.’

Aren decided, he saw that the trials were turning him into something he did not want to be, a being that followed their rules.

Aren recalled the first kill that he had, he recalled when he told himself he would never apologize for his actions. Somewhere along the line he lost sight of that completely and started following their route.

He leaped into the air and swung down into the body of the snake with a force that shattered the spinal cord in an instant.

The snake let out a guttural hiss, trying to pull away and find a way to attack and take Aren down, but Aren was not allowing any of that to happen, he’ll take it down.